By clicking the button below you agree to be contacted by AIU about education services (including through automated and/or pre-recorded means, e.g. dialing and text messaging) via telephone, mobile device (including SMS and MMS), and/or email, even if your telephone number or email address is on a corporate, state or the National Do Not Call Registry, and you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You understand that your consent is not required as a condition to purchase a good or service.

Benefits of an Online Entrepreneurship Degree for Small Business Owners

Entrepreneurship is much more than having a great small business idea. Creating a successful, profitable business takes business acumen and the know-how to develop an idea, organize funding, and manage the business. It takes innovation and smart risk-taking to enable your business get a strong foothold in a fast-moving and competitive global marketplace.

Everyone who starts their own business is taking a calculated risk. But you can take important steps to increase your chances of succeeding at your dream. One way to do that is to pursue an online entrepreneurship degree.

A business entrepreneurship degree can help business owners or people who want to start a small business by teaching the real-world, big-picture skills and concepts needed to know how to plan, fund and launch a business. Students working toward a business degree with a focus on entrepreneurship can combine core courses in business fundamentals with in-depth studies of entrepreneurial principles such as management, accounting, marketing and strategic planning.

Entrepreneurship is full of challenges. But it's worth the effort. Think about how different the world would be if Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Steve Jobs had decided the challenge and risks of entrepreneurship were too great.

Before deciding if self-employment is for you, consider whether you're willing to work long hours, work without benefits, and handle every facet of your business from janitorial work to qualifying for a loan. Weigh that against the benefits of flexibility, autonomy and reward of succeeding on your own before you decide whether business entrepreneurship is the right path for you.1

Plenty of people do decide the challenges are worth the risk: More than 9 percent of the total workforce was self-employed in 2012, according to the Oct. 2014 Monthly Labor Review report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.2 Will you be one of those people next year?